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Reaping Faith

While it is strongly recommended that player characters take at least one dot in the Pacts background, it is not strictly required, and in fact there are reasons why you might want to avoid it (e.g. if your character is seeking reconciliation). As such reaping Faith (as described in the core book, page 249 and following) is still a possibility. Unlike Pacts, which provide a steady stream of Faith every single day, Reaping is a one-time hit, and requires a lot less work.

The problem is that it's also riskier; after all, Reaping means deliberately revealing your true nature to a mortal, and using the resulting shock (or Revelation) to snatch some Faith as their belief in the divine - or the demonic - is rekindled. If the Revelation didn't force them to forget, they might become a born-again religious devotee, or be scarred for life. Or, if you're particularly unlucky, they go home and blog about it and you attract unwanted attention.

Just like for hunting for vampires, this will be done via dice-rolling. There will be methods for both Low-Torment and High-Torment. Whenever you perform one of these rolls, ping the Demon ST for validation purposes. If the roll is successful, you gain back one point of Temporary Faith. You may make this roll once per day.

Low-Torment Reaping

Vigilantism

Somebody is being mugged, or beaten up, or worse. Time to be a guardian angel!
Roll any ability you might have to break it up, whether it be Dexterity + Brawl to punch his lights out, or some evocation. Be very careful not to use anything lethal; if the assailant dies, you might have just created more problems than you solved. Including, possibly, gaining Torment.

If you roll at least three successes, you've saved the victim. Now comes the fun part: If you did NOT use an Evocation to subdue the assailant, you reveal your true nature to the victim, the assailant (if they're still conscious or alive), or both. This may involve activating your Apocalyptic Form, if you're sure you'll get away with using it in public.

Now, roll Charisma + Empathy. The affected mortals roll for Revelation. If you succeed on your roll, you reap Faith. If the affected mortal(s) succumb to Revelation, you face no consequences if you failed or botched the Empathy roll.

Healing the Sick

Note: In order to do this, you MUST have Lore of Awakening, Lore of the Flesh 4, or a similar power. This one is straightforward. Go to a hospital, find someone wounded, or find someone otherwise sick. Use your Evocation to heal them. Alternatively, roll Intelligence + Medicine if, say, your character is a doctor. If the condition is terminal or chronic, this will not be enough; you MUST use a supernatural means to cure them. If you fail the Intelligence + Medicine roll, you do not save the patient. If you botch it, you misdiagnose them and possibly even kill them.

If the roll is successful, the patient awakens. Now is the time to reveal your true nature. Roll Charisma + Empathy. The patient rolls for Revelation. If successful, you gain one point of Faith. If the patient fails the Revelation roll, you will gain no negative consequences from this.

Lifesaver

A mortal is about to suffer a terrible accident, or maybe they're about to jump in front of a moving bus or off of a bridge in a suicide attempt. Time to save a life.

Roll Dexterity + Athletics. If you succeed, you either tackle them to the ground before they jump in front of that bus, you push them out of the way of the drunk driver that was about to hit them, or you save them from falling off of a ledge. If you fail this roll, you do not save them. If you botch, you get hurt, too. (Note: Failing to save someone does NOT require a Degeneration roll. According to the Hierarchy of Sins, what matters is that you tried.)

Once that mortal's life is saved, you know what to do. Roll Charisma + Empathy. The near-victim rolls for Revelation.

High-Torment Reaping

Of course, you don’t have to be a good Samaritan. The rulebook is very clear that it is also possible to reap Faith by committing heinous acts. It is not recommended that you engage in such behavior (not in the game, and certainly not in real life), but if for some reason you are determined to accumulate Torment, it is possible. However, keep in mind that this touches on sensitive subjects, so please behave with discretion and tact.

High-Torment Reaping is both easier, and grants two points of Temporary Faith instead of one. It's also of course, riskier; not only will you automatically gain a point of Temporary Torment if you go this route, but the consequences of failing and botching are much higher…

Torture

You must have a captive, prisoner, or otherwise easily-accessible victim for this to be a viable option. Alternatively, you can go out and kidnap someone, but that would require a separate scene. You may also do this during a scene; if your character is interrogating somebody - say, perhaps an enemy - you may declare that you are attempting to reap Faith from them at the same time, in which case you may make these rolls. This is the ONLY instance in which you may theoretically make two Reaping rolls in one day.

Roll your preferred method of torture. Note that you do NOT want to kill the victim; if you do, you cannot reap Faith. If you have a particularly brutal Evocation (likely High-Torment version of one you already have, in which case intentionally using it results in an additional point of Temporary Torment in addition to the point gained from High-Torment Reaping), use that. You could also go the Jack Bauer route by rolling Strength + Brawl, or use psychological torture via Manipulation + Intimidation.

You must make an extended, contested roll of your preferred method against the victim's Willpower. Each success of yours in excess of the victim's successes saps one point of Willpower from your victim. When their Willpower reaches 0, you have broken them.

When the victim is broken, reveal your true Nature. The victim rolls for Revelation; because they're at Willpower 0, they make this roll at a difficulty of 10 (note that supernaturals do not suffer from Revelation; this only applies to mundane mortals). If this roll botches, however, the victim suffers a permanent derangement.

Risks

If you ever botch the roll needed to actually Reap the Faith (such as the Charisma + Empathy roll needed for Healing the Sick), or if the mortal scores three or more successes on their Revelation roll, you could face consequences. As mentioned above, maybe they go home and blog about it, and a Hunter reads it and recognizes it as legitimate. Maybe the person you healed IS a Hunter, or worse, the member of an Earthbound cult, a Sabbat ghoul, or a Technocrat or Kinsfolk.

For the sake of mortal willpower for Revelation rolls, assume they have a Willpower of 4 unless stated otherwise.

setting/reaping_faith.txt · Last modified: 2023/May/06 14:28 by zechstein